Teaching, AI, Content Strategy

Studying content strategy in the age of AI

With advances in generative AI, what is the value of content strategy—and the value of teaching or studying content strategy?

Speaking and education take many forms, worthy of both delight and scrutiny. Personally, I need to check in with both my heart and my head to know I’m doing well. Delight–the heart stuff–is easy: from client workshops to shiny association keynotes and guest lectures around the world, I love helping people hone their perspective and skills in communication problem-solving–and really, that’s what so much of design and content strategy entail. With apologies to Archimedes*, give me a mic and somewhere to stand and I will move the world–and inspire new ways of thinking about trust and applying those lessons to how we write and do business.

But we always have to question the relevance of what we’re teaching. This year, I’m wrapping up my tenth year teaching content strategy at the graduate level–first at Columbia University, now at FH Joanneum. With advances in generative AI and AI for content propagation, human content creators, content strategists, and content designers have faced greater demands to justify their value. Do we still need to teach the fundamental processes of content strategy?

In a word, yes. Thanks to AI, in many cases, content strategy has greater value, visibility, and impact than ever before. If your brand is dreaming of consistent, anticipatory customer support content, you’re building AI castles in the air. Who’s going to ensure the content on which AI trains is relevant, accurate, and in the right voice? Are you surfacing information that’s outdated? Put foundations under those castles: develop a message architecture, conduct a comprehensive content audit, and update your style guidelines.

Consistency starts with figuring out a message architecture, or hierarchy of communication goals. It serves as a rubric for a qualitative content audit. And if you’ve never prioritized a comprehensive quantitative audit… now is the time. Then give your AI guardrails and oversight in the form of structured content, editorial style guidelines, and a content design system. As long as brands envision lofty uses for AI, those building blocks aren’t going anywhere. I’m proud to keep teaching about them.

Screenshot from final presentations in my Brand-Driven Content Strategy course, winter 2023 – 2024 semester.

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